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June 2, 2009

As we continue to bring new authors and titles to our students' attention and to help struggling readers make those critical connections to literature, it's clear that our thoughts, like theirs, keep wandering to summer: summer traditions, summer workshops, and those perennial reading lists. While there is plenty here to keep you and your students busy until our next issue, we hope your vacation includes some long, languid days surrounded by family and friends.

Enjoy,

Daryl Grabarek
Editor, Curriculum Connections
dgrabarek@reedbusiness.com

P.S. Working on your summer reading list? Take a look at what some of our favorite children's and young adult authors are packing in their bags. Tomie dePaola, Sara Zarr, Susan Patron, Jerry Spinelli, Kate DiCamillo, Laurie Halse Anderson, and others, tell all.

What's New

  • Friendship Bracelets, S’mores, and the Great Outdoors: A Jamboree of Summer Camp Titles
    Including picture books in sunshine hues, zestfully illustrated chapter books, and fast-reading novels, these breezy offerings describe a time-honored summertime tradition with humor, imagination, and insight. There's plenty of singing along (and learning to get along) as the protagonists leave behind familiar environs and venture forth to try new endeavors, make mistakes and figure out how to fix them, and weather the ups and downs of friendship. Varying in approach from realistic accounts to fantastical fun, these lively tales will captivate kids who are heading off to camp or just like to read about it. more » » » 

Nick’s Picks

  • Nick's Picks: Selected Resources from TeachingBooks.net
    Recently I was asked how online, multimedia resources about books and authors can engage students with reading challenges—specifically those students who are reading below grade level and crave high-interest, fast-paced titles. While there may be no one prescriptive answer to that question, educators have a variety of approaches at their disposal to interest these reluctant and struggling readers.

    In this month's column, I've selected a sampling of TeachingBooks.net materials on high-interest titles with low reading levels that students will find enjoyable and accessible. These multimedia resources will enliven book discussions as they honor students' interests. more » » » 

Make These Curriculum Connections

  • Family Ties
    Fiction lovers have so many fine choices when they go digging for something good to read. They can choose school, sports, or adventure stories; animal tales; and mysteries, or books about other times, other places, and even other worlds. Sometimes, though, readers just want a book about something familiar—literally. That's when they'll choose a novel about family life, where the main characters may encounter pitfalls, but there is often a safety net to catch them. Here are two fine examples of that, set in very different regions—small-town Massachusetts and even smaller-town Alaska.

    If you have already read Jeanne Birdsall's National Book Award winner, The Penderwicks: A Summer Tale of Four Sisters, Two Rabbits, and a Very Interesting Boy (Knopf, 2005), then you probably already consider yourself a literary friend to the four garrulous and free-spirited Penderwick girls. They are: motherly and sensible Rosalind (age 12); science- and sports-minded Skye (age 11); aspiring author and drama queen Jane (age 10); and animal-loving Batty (age 4). more » » » 

Interview

  • The Evolution of Jacqueline Kelly
    Although she has law and medical degrees and still practices medicine in Austin, TX, Jacqueline Kelly says, "I have wanted to write my whole life, ever since I was a young child." Her favorite book, which she rereads every few years, is Kenneth Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. "In fact, I'm working on a sequel to it at the moment," Kelly admits.

    Her first book, the novel The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate (Holt, 2009), offers a view of life at the turn of the 20th century—a time when Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species was table conversation, girls were expected to learn cooking and sewing, and extremes in temperature could cause great hardship, especially in Fentress, TX. Narrator Calpurnia ("Callie Vee") Tate feels a strong pull to the natural world, and her observations on grasshoppers lead her to approach her reclusive, science-minded Grandfather; together they embark on remarkable adventures, shirking gender roles and other preconceived notions. Here Kelly discusses her foray into writing, and the inspiration for her resourceful 11-year-old heroine. more » » » 

Professional Shelf

  • Summer 2009 Workshops For Educators
    Each summer, all around the country, educators gather to discuss how to enrich readers' experiences and appreciation of children's and young adult literature. A number of these events include appearances by authors and illustrators, who provide insight into their works and process. We've listed a few upcoming workshops and conferences that caught our attention. more » » » 



Follow TeachingBooks.net on Twitter for updates on multimedia author and book resources

What's on your Summer Reading List? Favorite Children's and Young Adult Authors tell all


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